Day 24 - Deep Sea Fishing

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Today we again got to sleep in which is always great when you are on vacation. We had planned to go surfing or kayaking today as this is Surfers Paradise, the Sunshine Coast, warm weather and sun and sand. But as we have hit Australia during the coldest and wettest winter in decades, we decided to change our plans. We planned to go on a half day deep sea fishing charter. We started the day with the always loved all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hotel. The marina was pretty close to the hotel so didn’t take long to get there. The plan was for a 5 hour tour. Good news, when we got to the boat, Gilligan was the first mate, a tall skinny young kid with a Gilligan hat. The boat was not large and there were 8 other young guys on the trip as well. The seas were not ideal. There were 4-6 foot swells and the wind made it very choppy as well. Fortunately we only traveled about 20 minutes to get to the first fishing site.

When we arrived the captain showed us how to use the fishing poles and then, to both of our dismay, showed “us” how to bait the hooks. At this point we looked at each other and realized this was not like Mexico where they do all the work, you sit back and wait until a fish is on the line and real it in. This is a bit more of a do-it-yourself type boat. Yuck. We both fought over who was going to use the pole that the captain demonstrated the baiting with. But he showed us one more time so we both had at least one cast with baited hooks. We fished for about 4 hours and neither of us got skunked. Kirsten caught one fish almost 2 foot long and Chester got 3 fish, 1 was pretty smaller than the baitl so it had to go back in the water. We did suck it up and bait our own hooks the rest of the day. We used smaller fish and squid. Some of the guys got skunked and one caught some big tuna. We can’t remember what we caught but it was a Major or Corporal or Sergeant something or other. We don’t have the facilities to cook it so didn’t worry too much about it.

After about 4.5 hours we headed back to the Marina. What started as a cloudy windy day ended up nice with bits of sunshine. We saw some turtles and dolphins on the way home, oh yeah and a naked women. A nice yacht full of men and one naked woman passed us on the way in. Of course we were the only ones that noticed and the guys wanted the captain to turn back so they could see.

We decided to eat at Surfers Paradise on the way home despite everyone telling us it is over rated. Well let’s just say we agree. It is the most bizarre place. There will be a Prada, Gucci and Versace store and right between them is a clothing store advertising nothing over $10. It is a combination of Orlando, Bakersfield, CA and Beverly Hills all in one area. We can’t quite figure this place out.

Tomorrow we are headed to Brisbane and then fly to Fiji so this is our last day in Australia. We have to say that it was not as we expected. Some better and some worse, but if anyone is thinking about coming we have two comments. 1) Bring a ton of money if you are American. The exchange rates sucks and everything thing is expensive and full of fees and extras. 2) Don’t come during the winter. You just never know when you are going to hit the coldest, wettest July in history.

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